The Naturals.

Now I was going to take my own picture
instead of stealing Google's
 but I didn't because of reasons.
 (mainly darkness but whatever)

I bet you didn't expect this topic to crop up so soon. Especially since I only mentioned receiving it like yesterday.

But it has and now you must prepare to listen to me discuss how absolutely awesome The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is.

I am not joking.

First things first: What is the story about?
Natural at reading people or 'profiling' Cassie in contacted by the FBI. She's been chosen for a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to solve cold cases. Cassie is the last to join the programme and it's obvious no one in the Naturals programme is who they seem. When a new killer strikes, danger is closer to Cassie than ever before.

Now that is literally all you are getting out of me about the plot because spoilers.

This book is definitely a page turner. I know this because I literally could not put it down. I started it at about 3pm 27th October 2013 and I finished at around 10.30pm the very same day. Of course I didn't spend the whole seven and half hours reading. But I did spend at least four of them turning the pages. Now let me tell you, the second half of this book is tense, I couldn't sit still. I was moving around so much in my chair it caused my mother to ask "are you okay? Do you need an extra cushion or something?" No, but I may need to destroy this book. In a good 'i love this book so much it's making me feel things' way of course. I felt especially like this in the last few pages.

Now, the story features several snippets of something called You and this adds at least 10 points of creepiness to the book. It's probably the reason why the climax of the novel is so tense and gut wrenching. If I wasn't in my living room which included my family I may have yelled.
"No x can't be you! Not you!"
"Oh it's not x but is it y it can't be why because I thought it was a?"
"Oh wait it is x. No x cannot be you no no no"
"Wait okay K is here what if their You. But what about A"
"No Y is You who is You?"
This will make sense when you read the book.

One of the main features of the novel includes the aspect of "profiling'. Now what is profiling? Basically the ability to know a lot about someone from say their clothes, just think Sherlock. After reading the story, I almost wished I had the gift of looking at someone for a split second and knowing if they ate spaghetti for lunch. This isn't exactly how it works but you get the picture. I may or may not have tried to analyse a few people today, all I got was that one woman enjoyed the colour pink (she was dressed head to toe in pink, not the most difficult thing to guess really).

There is also some romance/love triangle in the story. I still have no idea who to ship. But do not let a dose of love triangle to put you off the book (are love triangles that bad? I don't think so), it isn't part of the main plot, well it is but it's not full frontal (wrong phrase but you know what I mean). It actually creates quite a funny scene within the story.

The novel actually exceeded all my expectations. Y'know when you read a blurb and you're all "Oh okay this sounds cool I suppose" You aren't that excited to read it but you know you'll give it a try. But it sits on your book shelf for a couple of months gathering dust because you've forgotten about it? Yeah I thought it would be one of those books.

It most certainly wasn't.

Now, I would like to thank Quercus for sending me this book because there is a 95% chance I probably never would have read it other wise. Oh, but I am so glad I read it. It may actually become one of my favourite books. It already has a spot on my 'favourite books bookshelf' Yes that is a thing I have.

I've also just realised that this book isn't out yet and I feel like I'm breaking some sort of law. So on the 5th  November y'all better go running to the bookshop to buy this, kay?

Now I only have one question: Can it be November 2014 already, because yes, this is going to be a series and I cannot wait for the next book.

Goodbye people of the internet. 

Productive

Wow two blog posts in two days.

Not going to lie, pretty proud of myself for this.

Now, it's Saturday 26th October 2013 and I'm not going to make up some story about how I've been extremely productive and saved the world or whatever. Because I haven't, I think I did the exact opposite.

How, I hear you ask. Well.

For a start I didn't get out of bed until 10am. Then, instead of proceeding to jump out of bed with a grin on my face and get ready for the day, I crawled downstairs and made myself a bowl of Weetabix. I then watched Miranda until about 12.30pm. All of this was done in my pajamas and dressing gown. Then when I did get dressed, I think ate about seven magic stars for lunch - nutritious huh? (And by seven I mean seven of the stars not seven packets okay?). Then I read Game Of Thrones. Now I plan to go tumblr for the rest of evening. Or at least until Strictly Come Dancing is on TV.  Do not judge me

The life of  this teenage girl is so busy and chaotic I can hardly keep up with myself.

Oh and thank you to Quercus for sending me Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

 Prepare yourselves for a blog post about that in the near future.

Don't get too excited now.

Actually instead of tumblr I might watch more Miranda. Ooo the decisions I have to make.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Question of doom

Y'know when you go for a job interview and they ask you the question. You know the question I mean:

So why did you chose this company?

Does anyone else just panic panic pAnIc PaNiC pANIC ?

I am a student and with University looming in about 18 months I really need money. This is obviously not an acceptable answer. To be quite honest I have no idea what would be the acceptable answer. I usually just spout out "I love the companies products and the policies your company has is just great. I also believe the experience I will gain from this opportunity will be very valuable" Of course this is all done with a look of sheer terror. I probably also say this at about 500 mph.

Wow I wonder why I'm still unemployed.

That is all I want contribute today.

Goodbye

Cat Clarke

Check me out using pictures.

There becomes a time, in everyone's life, where they have to discuss Cat Clarke.

Or at least in my life there is.

And that time is now.

I've come to the conclusion that there are two kinds of people in the world:

•  Those who know of Cat Clarke's existence and completely adore her YA books
• Those who have no idea who she is.

I've converted at least two people. It's not enough. I need to convert more people into becoming the first type instead of the second. 

Probably shouldn't have used the word convert but more people should read her books.

I feel like as an author she is very unappreciated. She's not even verified on twitter. Not that being verified on twitter is a necessary thing to happen of course. In my mind she is as good, if not better, than those who are verified, yes I'm looking at you Sarah Dessen and John Green (Not that I'm criticizing them of course - I adore their books too). Also after freaking out after Undone I figured she is just a generally nice (oh there goes my year nine English teacher complaining because I used the word nice) and pleasant person. 

How nice is that? I actually wasn't expecting a reply, nor a reply to my friend and I freaking out. (The other author who tweeted me, Ally Carter - but I can discuss that some other time)



Now to the reason I'm writing this instead of my history homework (yes I know I'll do after this shh)

Cat Clarke's books. 

Entangled 

Torn

Undone 

I have no recollection of why I chose to buy Entangled from the bookstore, but I did. Maybe I thought the cover looked pretty. I basically read Entangled within about two days and then proceeded to bug my best friend to read it. Which she did. 

Now why you should read it: It's a very very good book. But why? Because it makes you feel emotions. If a book doesn't make you feel emotions it isn't doing it's job right. But which emotions? All of them. Entangled also made me think. Who is this Ethan person? Why is he so creepy and weird? Why is she is a white room? Of course I'm not going to tell you here. Go get the book. When those answers are revealed, it's like an epiphany, and I'm not joking. They also made my stomach drop about fifty feet because of course that's why he's called Ethan. The fact the first line is 'I met Ethan the night I was planning to kill myself. Pretty inconvenient, when you think about it' is just brilliant. In fact I think that's why I bought the book - because of the opening line. How much personality is written in that line? A whole lot. It's also pretty humourous considering the subject. All her YA novels are written like that, full of personality and humour that when something terrible happens you just want to rip out your organs. That may be an exaggeration but read Undone - you'll get it. 

Speaking of Undone, that is far by the best novel I have ever read - and I'm not even kidding. I rarely stay up all night to read a book (mainly because I love sleep to much and I enjoy writing the endings in my mid) but I think I stayed up till about 3am reading Undone. Don't get me wrong-I did try to sleep but I spent too much time gritting my teeth into my pillow because that book is tense. I couldn't bare waiting the hours I would spend sleeping, I just had to read it. So there I was 3am, under the covers finishing the book. I have never felt so emotional after a book. By emotions I felt literally nothing. I was so shocked, my emotions had just stopped. It took me a while to get to sleep that night. Good job I had no school the next day. 

Now if you're one of these people who refuses to read a book because it's sad firstly, get a grip and secondly, being sad over a book is the best bit. If you get so emotional over a book your tears are real, the book is more likely to stay with you, mainly because you continue to think about it for the next few days so much you can't read another book. Which is exactly what happened after reading all three Cat Clarke novels.  

Now, if you've read this I command advise you to buy at least one of her books. I doubt you'll regret it. Especially if you're now wondering about the white room and Ethan you should buy it. Not go googling because spoilers are bad.

Bye!!

P.S I love spoilers but with TV shows, not books.

P.S.S I hope this blog post has led you on the path to becoming the first type of person the better type